OK, this post is much more "commercial" than anything I've done before, but bear with me on this...
A handful of factoids:
- The San Francisco RSA conference is coming up in a few weeks.
- I'll be there covering the event.
- Astaro will be there, promoting their new (and of course, current) product line.
- I blog, and I work for Astaro.
- Getting press credentials for RSA means you are solicited by everyone who wants press for their products and services.
Now to connect some dots. Several people have commented on the barrage of email invitations to schedule meetings and other such things. Some have commented on the cluelessness of some of the PR and Marketing people. I see two primary issues; first is that some PR and Marketing types don't have the time (or possibly skill) to do a good job (see this post at the Mediaphyter blog); second is that many people do not realize that bloggers and traditional press may have some overlap, but are generally very different people with different situations (see this post at Martin McKeay's blog).
I don't mind the mountains of email invitations. I'm getting into the event with a complimentary Press/Analyst pass and the vendors want to get their message out- that's how this works. I do think many of the messages and invitations are excessively verbose and hype-laden, but some are pretty well done. The well done ones are much more likely to get my attention, both before and during the conference.
Here's the Astaro connection: Astaro wants to get attention from bloggers and I think they are trying to do it right. Tuesday afternoon (you'll be ready to sit down, have a beer and jump on the Internet by then) there will be a "Beer and Blog" event at the Astaro booth; meet Astaro people including the CEO, see the products, talk about whatever you want. And beer. The invitations are short and to the point, and they are only being sent to bloggers. Yes bloggers, Astaro wants your attention, but they are trying to do it right. If you are registered as a Blogger for RSA you should get an invite- if you are interested please RSVP, it would be bad to run out of beer. If you don't get an invite, let me know. And let me know what you think.
Now, back to your irregularly scheduled blogging.
Jack
